Cup-and-Ring Stone: OS Grid Reference – SE 23242 52260
Also Known as:
- Little Almes Cliffe
- Little Almias Cliff Crag
Archaeology & History
When the great northern antiquarian William Grainge (1871) wrote of this place, he told that, “the top of the main rock bears…rock bains and channels, which point it out as having been a cairn or fire-station in the Druidic day; there are also two pyramidal rocks with indented and fluted summits on the western side of the large rock” — but said nothing of the faded cup-and-ring that we’re highlighting here, to be found on its vertical eastern face. This ancient geological rise is today more peppered with increasing amounts of modern graffiti – much more than when I first visited the place in the early 1990s with my old petroglyph colleague, Graeme Chappell.
In modern times, this singular cup-and-ring seems to have been reported first in E.S. Wood’s (1952) lengthy essay on prehistoric Nidderdale. It was visited subsequently by the lads from Bratf’d’s Cartwight Hall Archaeology Group a few years later; and in the old photo here you can see our northern petroglyph explorer Stuart Feather (with the pipe) and Joe Davis looking at the design. In more recent times, Boughey & Vickerman (2003) added it in their survey of, telling briefly as usual:
“On sheltered E face of main crag above a cut-out hollow like a doorway is a cup with a ring; the top surface of the rock is very weathered and may have had carvings, including a cupless ring.”
Indeed… although the carving is to the left-side of the large hollow and not above it. Scattered across the topmost sections of the Little Almscliffe themselves are a number of weather-worn cups and bowls, some of which may have authentic Bronze age pedigree, but the erosion has taken its toll on them and it’s difficult to say with any certainty these days. But it’s important to remember that even Nature’s ‘bowls’ on rocks was deemed to have importance in traditional cultures: the most common motif being that rain-water gathered in them possessed curative properties.
References:
- Bennett, Paul, The Old Stones of Elmet, Capall Bann: Milverton 2001.
- Bogg, Edmund, From Eden Vale to the Plains of York, James Miles: Leeds 1895.
- Bogg, Edmund, Higher Wharfeland, James Miles: Leeds 1904
- Cowling, E.T., Rombald’s Way, William Walker: Otley 1946.
- Grainge, William, History & Topography of Harrogate and the Forest of Knaresborough, J.R. Smith: London 1871.
- Parkinson, Thomas, Lays and Leaves of the Forest, Kent & Co.: London 1882.
Acknowledgements: Huge thanks to James Elkington for use of his fine photos on this site.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian
